Altemus Claims Egos, Politics Forced Lawsuit

August 18, 2008|By MATT SABO, msabo@dailypress.com 757-247-4712

GLOUCESTER — Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Teresa Altemus could have likely avoided filing her $785,000 lawsuit against the Gloucester County School Division if it weren't for "egos and small-town politics," her lawyer wrote in court documents filed last week.

Altemus, a technology assistant at Gloucester High School, is seeking the money for being unable to make up work missed while she was attending to her duties as a county supervisor. The animosity toward Altemus is so strong that School Board members have "chosen to face a lawsuit instead of giving (Altemus) ten minutes to explain her request at a School Board meeting," according to court documents.

The documents filed by Altemus came in response to a request by the Gloucester schools to dismiss her lawsuit on the grounds that her allegations of political backlash are unsupported by evidence.

The School Board noted that Altemus took 88 days of leave in the past three school years - 572 hours of work based on a 6 1/2 -hour workday - for political activities as the school division's policy allows.

The School Board, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court on Friday, denied Altemus' requests to make up time missed for political activities because making up large amounts of time is "too disruptive to the normal operation of the schools and failed to meet her primary job responsibilities of providing services to teachers and students."

Central to Altemus' argument of discrimination is the case of another Gloucester technology assistant, who was allowed to alter her schedule while she attended a college class in Richmond during school hours. Altemus says in court documents that she would like the same treatment.

The School Board said the other technology assistant's request for a flexible schedule was for one semester. Altemus requested a schedule that would be unlimited in duration and outside the normal schedule and operation of the high school, according to court documents.

In response to the school division's request to dismiss the case, Altemus has filed pages of depositions from Gloucester School Board members, school officials and Supervisor Michelle Ressler to bolster her assertion that Altemus has been harassed and is the victim of political backlash arising from tension between School Board members and supervisors.

Among the documents filed are portions of a deposition of Ressler that was taken earlier this year. In it, Ressler states that when she has disagreed with what the school officials wanted, they have made things difficult for her.

Asked for an example, Ressler said one incident occurred after what proved to be a controversial vote at the Jan. 2-3 Board of Supervisors meeting to change school funding from a lump sum to amounts in specific categories. Supervisor Gregory Woodard and his wife, Eunice Woodard, are both substitute teachers in Gloucester.

Between the time Woodard voted for categorical funding and until he rescinded his vote at a supervisors meeting a month later, neither he nor his wife were called as substitutes, Ressler said.

"The day after he rescinded his vote, they received multiple phone calls that morning, which makes me believe there is retaliation," Ressler said.

Ben Kiser, the Gloucester schools superintendent, said on Friday that he was approached by Woodard following a town hall meeting on Jan. 17. Woodard asked Kiser to check into why he was not being called to substitute, Kiser said.

"For whatever reason, I don't know why, he was not contacted," Kiser said. "It had nothing to do with his vote."

After speaking with Woodard, Kiser put the "wheels in motion to rectify that," he said. "From the school division's perspective, there's no connection between his vote and our assuring he was contacted to substitute."

Altemus also provided in court documents portions of a deposition taken earlier this year from Ressler. She said school division employees believe they have been penalized because they disagree with "what's going on" between the supervisors and members of the Gloucester School Board. But when asked who these people are, Ressler couldn't provide any identities.